Lola has been in kennels all her life and is totally deaf, she would like to go to a loving and caring home whose owners have another dog for her to latch onto. Being deaf Lola uses her eyes to take in the surroundings more than other dogs which makes her very animated on the lead.
Handling a deaf dog is a new experience for me as it's no good giving verbal commands, but of course being a clever dog she knew the signals I gave her when I needed her to stop pulling ahead on the lead. Getting her attention when first out in the field was hopeless, so I let her pull and run about to get rid of the excess energy she had.
After half an hour she slowed down and started to take notice of me especially as I had some treats in my pocket which she immediately latched onto. Gradually I shortened the lead and after a while she walked by the side of me without pulling, so making sure she was looking at me I gave her the thumb up sign which means "good girl" and gave her a good pat, I never had to give the thumbs down sign which meant "bad Girl", once or twice I had to give the "no" sign which is the palm of the hand extended down to the dogs face.
Lola is a lovely dog who needs a companion dog as her ears.
During the summer http://www.appledown.co.uk/ would like somebody to do some gardening and perhaps painting and woodworking in and around the kennels. I would think this would suit a young person with time to kill or an early retiree with time on their hands. Give them a ring, they would love to hear from you and it's a great spot in the countryside.
Hi, a few years ago I had a deaf cat. Never missed a thing, I discovered that he could pick up the slightest near by movement. I am convinced he did it with his whiskers.
ReplyDeleteregards
M n M
People have to teach hearing dogs what words mean. With deaf dogs, people can teach them sign language/hand signs. The success is training with practice, consistency, and praise (yes, thumbs up and smile!). Going for a walk is very exciting for any dog, even hearing dogs. With practice and training, Lola can be a great dog.
ReplyDeleteThere are many good online resources for training deaf dogs. Please tell the kennels to encourage people who are working with Lola to check out www.deafdogs.org, www.d2care.org,www.deafdogsrock.com.
I have recently started a blog about my deaf dog and I will provide resources. http://radcliffdeafdog.wordpress.com/
The dogs at the kennels are very fortunate to have a friend like you taking them out for walks.
Janet
Hi Janet,
DeleteThanks for your reply and kind comments, I have passed your info onto http://www.appledown.co.uk/
Take care,
Dave.
Reply from Julie at http://www.appledown.co.uk/ after recieving Janets comments by email....
DeleteWe have done loads of training with Lola and she knows her hand signals well. She never pulls us as she knows that we expect good behaviour, unfortunately the down side to the dogs being walked by lots of people is that they don't have consistent handling.
We were the first people to realise that Lola is deaf. She has flourished since she has been given the opportunity to learn.
Julie